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Corvette Racing looking for strong season with C7 race car

Corvette Racing has kept the C7.R kind of hush-hush, but the team is ready for a big season in 2014. Photo by RICHARD PRINCE

To those who didn't know the whole story, it seemed a bit peculiar Corvette Racing was so secretive about its new C7.R race car.

It will debut at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona on Jan. 25 and will run the entire Tudor United SportsCar Championship season—well, almost the whole season; more about that in a moment—as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

For instance: Since we know what the C7 Corvette Stingray production car looks like, what's the big deal with the race car? Why run it in zebra-striped camouflage, even at the “Roar before the 24” Daytona test in early January?

Because the C7.R isn't based on the standard C7, it's based on the 2015 C7 Z06 making its debut at this month's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Previously that was not a big deal—the C6-based Z06 was a mildly more aggressive C6—but that isn't true with the C7 Z06. The exterior is quite different, too, at least to the trained eye, and many of those aerodynamic tweaks have made their way to the C7.R.

So you can see why it has been camouflaged. And unlike the old road-going Z06, which used a normally aspirated, 7.0-liter V8, the C7 Z06 is expected to use a 6.2-liter supercharged version.

The C7.R Photo by RICHARD PRINCE

Cool, no?

Uh, well, not so fast, in both senses of the word. The new sports-car series—the combined championship made up of the Grand-Am and American Le Mans Series—has essentially the same rules for the Corvette the ALMS did when the car competed there last year and before: The Corvette should have a 5.5-liter normally aspirated V8, and, like pretty much every other car in the class, should be limited to about 500 hp with restrictors.

So what would be the point in building a brand-new powertrain for the C7.R, if it still needs to be 5.5 liters, still limited to 500 horses?

“None,” says Doug Fehan, team manager since the Corvettes first hit the track in this current era, in 1999. “You can't even use variable valve timing, it's against the rules. So to develop all-new pieces means millions of dollars in expenditures. And at the end of the day, you're still at a 5.5-liter V8. The sanctioning body was very relieved when we said that from an economic basis, it made a huge amount of sense for us to carry over our powertrain.”

So they did, along with a slightly modified differential. The engine does have direct injection, but even that is a step back for Chevrolet, Fehan says—Chevy had that back in the old GT-1 days.

“Let me give you a little history,” says Fehan, who has been doing this so long you know he's about to step on a few toes. “Five or six years ago, they challenged every manufacturer to develop cheaper engines that last longer. Everybody nodded like a bobblehead doll. But I can tell you that none of them responded to that except us. Fifty hours was the goal—we now have an engine that we are totally confident will run for 50 hours, and we're working on one that will run for even longer. And we're doing that for a price tag of $135,000 or $140,000, and that makes it very appealing to our customers in Europe, because those guys can run so economically. We have durability, reliability, everything. It was silly to develop a new engine.”

As for the rest of the C7.R, that pretty much describes the holdover parts. For Fehan and the team at Chevrolet and Pratt & Miller Engineering—it spearheads the Corvette Racing program for General Motors—to run the C6.R all last season and, incidentally, win the ALMS GT championship, and develop the C7.R at the same time meant a lot of sleepless nights. But he and his drivers seem very happy.

“There are significant differences between the C6.R and the C7.R,” says Oliver Gavin, a Corvette factory driver for 12 years and a four-time class winner at Le Mans. “The chassis is stiffer and lighter,” and the car's overall balance will, he believes, make it more controllable on rougher tracks, as well as circuits like Road America and Sebring where you have to climb curbing in the corners to be fast.

“Plus, the direct injection has helped the throttle response, and should help with fuel mileage. Overall, there are some real gains made. It's quite a different beast, and we're slowly learning the advantages.”

Corvette Racing is hoping for a successful season in the C7.R.

The C6.R was competitive on every type of track, winning 51 ALMS races (between GT1 and GT2 versions of the car), from the long circuits to the tight street courses, and there is no reason to expect the C7.R won't be, too. As mentioned, the C7.R will miss one of the most important races on the schedule this year—the Detroit Grand Prix on May 30-31, the hometown race for both Chevrolet and its arch-rival, SRT and its Viper. Neither team will be at the race because it conflicts with Le Mans testing, so the series scratched the whole class from the Detroit program.

That said, the GT Daytona cars—the class for the GT cars from the Grand-Am Rolex series; they're slower than the GT Le Mans cars coming from the ALMS—will contain some Vipers in Detroit. Factory sanctioned privateers will run them. Chevrolet chose not to do that, even though it means no Detroit representation, unless you count the “Corvette” Daytona Prototypes, but those aren't Corvette-based. The C7.R certainly is.

Speaking of the Daytona Prototype class: The Grand-Am class has always run entirely separate from the ALMS races, but now they are combined. So it has meant a little scrambling in both classes for drivers, especially for the longer races requiring more than two. Previously Chevrolet might have borrowed a couple drivers from one class to help with another, but with all the Chevrolet sports cars competing on the same weekends, there has been a shuffle.

Fehan's driver lineup for the GT Le Mans class races remains unchanged, with Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen—last year's ALMS GT champs—back together in one car. Gavin and Tommy Milner, who ran third in the championship in 2013 after taking the title in 2012, are back, too. The longer endurance roster adds Robin Liddell and IndyCar's Ryan Briscoe for the Rolex 24 and the 12 Hours of Sebring, while Le Mans in June will see Jordan Taylor and Richard Westbrook join the team.

The driver talent pool, Fehan says, “is vast,” and invariably he has plenty to choose from. Everybody he interviews can go fast, but he looks for drivers who also know when to slow down. “We've had two Le Mans victories handed to us by the fastest guys on the racetrack—who go brain-dead, crash out, and hand us the trophy.”

The new combined series is good news for Fehan and the team. “Running in our class, there is nothing to be unhappy about, and plenty to be happy about,” including a solid North American schedule and what should be an improved TV package with Fox Sports.

Fehan and the other GT Le Mans teams are also happy for two other reasons: The 2014 GT Le Mans class has minimal rule changes, especially compared to some other classes such as the Daytona Prototypes. And the class is the only one getting to choose its tire manufacturer, with all others limited to the Continental-provided spec tire. Several years ago, Chevrolet made what amounted to a gut-wrenching decision to leave longtime partner Goodyear for Michelin.

It has turned out well because no tire company is prepared to match Michelin's Le Mans investment.

Had Corvette been limited to a spec Continental in the U.S., then gone to Le Mans to compete against other teams that had been running all season with an open tire rule, it would have been at a serious disadvantage—the same disadvantage the Continental-limited LMP2 Prototypes going

to Le Mans will have, unless Continental can come up with a tire as good as Michelin's. Continental is on record saying it believes it can.

So who is Fehan worried about in the GT Le Mans class? The BMWs have been strong and will continue to be so, Fehan says, “especially with race strategy.” Ferrari's 458 is a “great vehicle.” Vipers have improved to the point Fehan suspects the series might even dial their performance back a bit, “and they can accommodate that.”

But Porsche is his biggest concern, with a new car and direct factory involvement. “In terms of general improvement in performance,” Fehan says, “they will make the biggest jump.”

And as for the C7.R? Daytona is perhaps the season's biggest unknown. Corvette Racing debuted there Jan. 21, 1999, and in 2001, when the then-flimsy prototypes failed, unexpectedly

won the Rolex 24 Hours outright with the C5.R with Ron Fellows, Johnny O'Connell, Franck Freon and Chris Kneifel. Corvette quit while it was ahead, and hasn't been back as a factory team since.

“We have so many new parts, so little carryover,” Fehan says. “But we have enough expertise to have confidence in those new parts. At testing we just need to get the car to where the guys can drive it, then start tweaking on spring rates and the like.

“You could have three days, three weeks, three months or three years to get it right. And you're still going to want a little more time before the first big race.”